The Rights of Kings
by LafieTries
Summary: Historical hetalia, Frederick didn't want much, just to play music, read poetry and philosophize about life. But Fate is once kind and twice cruel and things just don't always turn out how they should.


Frederick was buried on a hill by his palace in Sanssouci. Of course visitors weren't allowed to visit the grounds after 5:00 p.m., but Gilbert had never followed the Palace rules before and he wasn't about to start now. He stole into the gardens at midnight, the only time suitable for someone as awesome as himself, and made his way to the stone rectangle marking Frederick's remains. As always, he took a pint of beer with him and easily stepped over the wimpy fence designed to keep tourists out.

Friedrich der Große, the great Prussian King. It had taken years to get his remains here. Gilbert had argued with his successor, Frederick William II, to no avail, and Frederick had been buried with his father in Potsdam. Gilbert had been there, 160 years later during World War Two, and had helped carry the King's coffin to safety at the bunker in Potsdam-Eiche, and then to the salt mine at Bernterode. He watched as the U.S. Army carried Frederick off to Elisabeth's church in Marburg. It wasn't until Germany had been reunified that Frederick had ended up where he belonged. August 17th, 1991 had been the only time that Gilbert had cried over Frederick's death. Finally, two hundred and five years after his death, Old Fritz had been laid to rest in the place that he'd picked out for himself. It was then that the personification of the brilliant empire that the king had created, had stood and wept over the grave of the one human being he'd let himself grow attached to. He'd never felt so relieved.

Tonight things were much different. Gilbert was grinning ear to ear even though he hadn't had a lick of beer yet. "It's been a while hasn't it old man?" Gilbert sighed happily and flopped down on the grass. "A lot's happened since you left you know. I have a kid brother now, well I guess he's not really a kid anymore, but you get the idea."

Gilbert rambled on for a while after that, talking about Germany and beer and whatever else came to mind, but his main purpose there was much bigger than just talking to the body of his once favorite king. There were a few things he needed to come to terms with, and those things had started a very long time ago before Gilbert had known the pain that he would cause his best and greatest ruler before the man had even had a chance to become what he was meant to be. Fate had been cruel to Fritz in a way that the world had little knowledge of.

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Gilbert had never been very good at pouting for long periods of time, so he didn't. Instead, he came up with brilliant plans to get what he wanted. For instance, when the king banned The young country from spending time outside of meetings with the prince, Gilbert snuck into the prince's room. Granted he'd never actually _broken into_ Frederick's room before, it definitely couldn't be too difficult for the awesome Prussia to sneak past a few guards and pick a lock.

Of course that's not what he told the guard as he was hauled back to his room. "Look, it's not what you think. I was just practicing! I wasn't _actually_ trying to break in. Who's stupid enough to break into the prince's room? Definitely not me, I mean- Ack!" Gilbert was cut off as he was tossed unforgivingly into his room and the door was locked behind him. Honestly, what a way to treat your country! Whatever, the great Prussia could not be stopped!

Twenty minutes later Fritz was opening his window to Gilbert who was hanging from the three inch wide window seal and grinning like a maniac. Fritz just rolled his eyes and watched as Gilbert hauled himself into his room. "Gilbert, you _know_ you're not supposed to be here," he sat with a huff on his bed, as hard as he tried, he couldn't stop the corners of his mouth from turning up.

Gilbert just grinned, "Well what did you expect?"

Frederick just shrugged and turned away, he was just a kid after all, not much past 10 years of age, but Gilbert was training him well if he did say so himself, which he did, quite often actually. "The king will be upset." He mumbled.

Gilbert softened, "Well the king's not gunna find out, is he?" Gilbert plopped himself down next to Fritz and nudged him lightly with his elbow, "besides Fritz, I have an awesome present for you that I definitely have to give you tonight."

"You got me a present?" Frederick grinned and looked up at the nation excitedly, Gilbert laughed at how easily Fritz's moods changed when there was good news to be had. "What is it?"

Gilbert beamed in pride as he pulled out the neatly wrapped gift. Fritz raised an eyebrow and pointed, "You didn't wrap that."

"Says who!" Gilbert was immediately defensive, "I can wrap presents neatly if I want, I do it all of the time!"

"Yes, but you don't wrap presents in bright red and tie them up with fancy chords." Frederick took the present, " _You_ almost never wrap them, and when you do it's in old flour sacks you stole from the kitchen."

"Hey! To be fair I don't _steal_ them, it's not stealing if they're not being used, and the kitchen has a billion of them anyway!" Frederick just raised an eyebrow at him, "Alright fine! Francis wrapped it, happy?" Gilbert pouted at him.

The ten year old just laughed and carefully undid the chord and paper. Inside was a small book of poetry. "It's... French." Frederick trailed off uncertainly,

"Ja, Francis's doing really, I wanted to get a German one, but he insisted that French poetry was much better, and I wouldn't have listened to him, but you said you kind of liked how French sounded anyway." Gilbert shrugged

"I can't read it very well yet." Frederick turned the book in his hands slowly and flipped open to a random page.

"I know, but I figured that an awesome prince like you could definitely figure it out! I mean if the future king of Prussia can't figure it out who can?" Gilbert grinned and nudged him playfully, "Look, Francis already told me what the first part is." he reached around the boy and flipped to the first poem.

"Il dit non avec la tête  
Mais il dit oui avec le cœur"

He spoke in rough french that Francis had insisted on making him repeat until he could at least pronounce something similar to what it was supposed to be.

"It means, 'He said no with his head, but he said yes with his heart,' at least that's what francis said it meant."

Frederick ran a finger over the words gingerly. He was painfully aware of the trouble Gilbert could be in if the King found out that he'd given him this. His father found no use in things like poetry and music, and had forbidden Fritz's teachers from teaching him any such subjects. Everything he knew about literature, art and philosophy came from his mother or from bits of information that he could glean from books his instructors and mother snuck to him. It endangered everyone involved, but frederick loved the arts and had talent. It seemed that everyone wanted him to experience the arts except his father, and it wouldn't have been such an issue if the King didn't have such a horrible temper.

"thanks Gil." Fritz grinned up at him. "I'll definitely learn to read it since you gave it to me." He set the book aside and hugged his friend tightly.

"Kesesese~ Of course you will!" He grinned "You're going to speak french better than Francis!"

"You think so?" Fritz beamed, "Father would be so mad if he found out that I loved it so much."

"Well the old man doesn't have a clue and we're gonna keep it that way!"

Gilbert stayed for a while and the two of them talked about how they were going to practice their fencing with or without the king's approval, they made plans to sneak into the stables if they had to. Gilbert promised to talk to Hans and get him to come as well.

Hans was the son of one of the noblemen of the castle, He was 8 years older than fritz, but the two got along famously. Gilbert would never admit it, but he was jealous of the boy. Hans was allowed to spend much more time with fritz than Gilbert was. Hans studied law and, being the son of a nobleman, had recently joined the prussian army. As such, the king saw Hans as a much better influence on his son than the stubborn and excitable Gilbert. There were many times that Gilbert had had to stay behind while the other two studied and played together.

Gilbert new that the king didn't view him as a person, and he knew that it was only fair, after all, he wasn't a person, he was a country, but what frustrated him so much was that the king saw him only as something to control. As far as the king was concerned, Gilbert had no other purpose than to go to meetings and fight wars, but Gilbert wanted more than that. He wanted to laugh and tease and have fun like a human. He wanted to know little Frederick like a human would. He'd brought up his desire with his king several times and it had never ended well. The king didn't like things he couldn't control, and whatever the King found to be wild out of control he beat into submission. That was just the angry man's way.

Nevertheless, Gilbert still liked Hans well enough to run messages to and from him for Fritz, even if he had to throw in the occasional snide remark or teasing comment.

"Hey you lethargic mud stain, I've got a message for you!" Gilbert smirked as he jogged over to Hans.

"Did you hear that Tanius? It sounds like there's a phantom haunting this practice field!" Fritz and the boy he was sparing with didn't so much as pause at the sound of Gilbert's voice.

"Well at least _this_ phantom knows how to use a sword! You look like you're about to cut your own head off with that thing."

"If you're so confident, then why do you keep refusing to spar me? I think you're full of it Beilschmidt." Han's retorted as he parried a blow from an exasperated Tanius.

"Are we going to actually spar or should I leave the two of you alone to sort out your secret love letters?"

"They're not love letters!" Hans puffed out exasperatedly .

"You sure about that Han's? For all you know it really could be a confession this time" Gilbert winked and smirked evilly.

Han's blushed brightly and nearly dropped his practice sword. Tanius rolled his eyes, quite used to Gilbert's antics and disarmed a flustered Hans. "Come find me when you're done with..." he waved a hand non-committally at Gilbert "that."

Gilbert lifted his hands in mock insult at Tanius as he walked off before turning his attention back to Hans, who was retrieving his sword. "Has anyone ever told you that you're an asshole?"

Gilbert brought a finger to his chin in thought, "Not recently actually, the servants have taken to calling me a hellish demon. They're getting more and more creative everyday, unlike you apparently."

Hans just sighed and waved him down in defeat. "So what is it this time? Have you talked him into some crazy plan, or are we just stealing rolls from the kitchen again?"

"We're sneaking out tonight to practice sparring, he wants you to come." Gilbert watched as Hans put his gear away. "You should to, I might even let you spar me this time."

"You say that everytime and you always chicken out." Hans teased lightly

"I told you I'm not chickening out! I have my reasons, but it's not like you need much convincing anyway."

Hans sobered up at that, "yeah I'll be there, but just because the kid needs as much help as he can get, and you'll have to forgive me if I don't think you're an adequate teacher." He forced a smile.

Gilbert snorted in amusement, "Whatever you say. We'll be out here once it gets dark."

"Yeah, yeah, just don't kill him trying to get out of that castle, I don't care if _you_ hurt yourself, but if he falls off the side of that castle, I will kill you." Han's warned.

"Please, I've gotten him out of there more times than I can count and we've only nearly died like four times." Gilbert huffed at him.

"Don't remind me." Hans growled back.

"Meh," Gilbert shrugged and grinned, "I'll let Fritz know you'll be here then. Try not to hurt yourself before dark." They saluted each other mockingly before Gilbert left and headed for the castle. He had work to do if he planned on escaping the king that night.

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 **Historical Notes**

First of all, I am not a historian, my knowledge in this area doesn't extend past what I've found and researched on the Internet, so if I get some things wrong, please forgive me, let me know and I'll do my best to fix things.

I'll warn you now, Hans is a real person and if you google him you will get spoilers for this story, However my portrayal of him probably isn't accurate. The same goes for frederick, since I haven't ever met the men, I'm portraying them in my own unique way. If you have suggestions feel free to shoot them at me.

The poem that Gilbert recites is a french poem called _The Dunce,_ by Jacques Prévert. Frederick would've never read the poem since Prévert wasn't born until much later, but I like the poem so I threw it in. P.s. I don't speak French so don't hate me, I won't use it very often, and when I do I'll endeavor to do more research than just plugging it into Google translate to make sure it's correct.

The things I listed at the beginning of the chapter about Frederick's burial are, as far as my internet surfing has shown, accurate.

 **Let me know what you think and if I should continue this, feedback is always welcome.**


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